


Mornings Suck

by Disgruntled_Raptor



Series: Times of Day Are Frustrating [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Comic History, F/M, Hate to friendship, It'll be a long time before they get along if this goes as planned, Rick Jones is only for one chapter, Solitude, Starvation, There's a T-Rex what could go wrong?, They're trapped on island, mentions of child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-05-02 23:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 20,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5268620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Disgruntled_Raptor/pseuds/Disgruntled_Raptor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Let's start with the facts:<br/>Mornings suck. Morning people are special and deserve an award, simple as that. They take the worst part of the day and run with it.</p><p>Now as a decidedly not morning person, at least not without the assistance of coffee, Darcy had no desire to be awake and wishes she stayed in bed. The T-Rex that wants her for a snack is not helping her like mornings. The half naked but unconscious man is also not helping. This with being in the middle of who knows where with no cell service, it's been a long day and it's only 8:15.</p><p>Fact is mornings, like many other things, suck and the goddamn unconscious man better wake up soon and get them out of there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alarms Suck

**Author's Note:**

> Bruce Banner's history is more comic based than MCU. He will, eventually, mention common story lines he's been in. In fact much of this is based on the ideas from the story line Tempest Fight by Peter David, but some parts are of course very different.

It sort of all went down like this: At 7 A.M., Darcy hit snooze. Fifteen minutes later, she hit snooze again with a rather displeased grumble. At around 7:30 she attempted to viciously pry the cord of the clock out of the wall. Really she only had an old alarm clock so she could do that, plus then she’d have no desire to destroy her phone with pure morning rage. Unfortunately the alarm clock had emergency batteries in case of the loss of power. Worse yet someone had changed the batteries. Damn responsible asshole. At 7:40 Darcy got a call from Jane about some new discovery.

Now this is where the story takes a different turn. See at 8:15 Darcy was trying to outrun at T-Rex. These were all of course valid points against mornings. Really mornings only had breakfast going for them and then someone went and made all-day breakfast. Hopefully that person got an award for their service to mankind for taking the one good think of morning and extending it to the day. Because you can have a crap filled day of aliens and gods but at least after you can have pancakes. One can deal with insane killers, world conquering monsters and such if there are pancakes at the end of the day.

Now onto the matter at hand: being chased by a fucking T-rex at 8:15 in the morning. How Darcy ended up running through a thick jungle was a rather confusing story. Mainly it was confusing because she didn’t know exactly what had happened. One moment she was meeting up with Jane, the next there was a bright light and she found herself waking up in the jungle. Pulling out her phone she found that only five minutes had passed and had no reception, no signals of any sort. One would think that with Stark Industries covering the cellphone service of those with any connection to the members of the Avengers, she would have service anywhere. Apparently this did not apply to random jungles. She had wandered for about two minutes, which was when she met her large toothy reptile friend who wanted nothing more than a morning snack.

Darcy was rather certain she had never run so fast in her life, constantly hoping she’d pass by something larger and easier to catch for her new friend to eat other than her. She had never understood in movies why a carnivorous creature of massive size would chase tiny humans and ignore much larger and injured animals. That is beside the point though. Darcy soon found it harder and harder to run, it wasn’t just the fact her lungs were burning and she was starting to taste blood, though that played a small role, it was more that she was no longer running on dry and packed dirt but sand. It seemed the jungle gave way to a beach, which right now was very bad. She ran along the beach, looking for a good spot to duck back into the jungle and stay on the solid ground that won’t shift beneath her feet. She briefly questioned going into the water and finding out if a T-Rex can swim. On the off chance it can, well, that wouldn’t end well. Or maybe it would wait her out. Was drowning worse than being eaten by a T-Rex? Not to mention there could be anything in the water. This really wasn’t her day at all. She should have stayed in bed, that would have been the smart thing to do.

Darcy kept running, even as it felt like her legs were going to give out at any second. That’s about the point where she saw a man doubled over on the beach, coughing up what looked like water. He looked half dead, shirtless, pants torn to shreds, kind of like a survivor of a shipwreck from a movie. Hopefully he looked up soon and somehow found the energy to run. She was getting close and he was still coughing. She drew in a large breath and shouted, “Hey! Run!” It was the best she could do, even if doing so made her want to stop and cough after all the running.

At this moment the man looked up to see the commotion. One would assume he would panic and try to run. Yet, in the perhaps single strangest moment of the day the man walked towards her and the rather large reptile. That’s when it got even stranger, if that was possible. The man shouted a quick, “Hey!” before he let out a series of coughs resulting in more water on the ground, “Pick on someone your own size!” He was breathless but still moved towards them. Well, Darcy had tried to warn him, not her fault he had a deathwish right?

...Goddamn she had to try and stop this guy didn’t she?

“We don’t have time for you to play hero! Run!” She was ready to grab him and let out a string of colourful curses at the man. That’s about the time she heard a loud boom beside her, and sand being kicked up everywhere.

One thing Darcy certainly was not expecting to see in her lifetime, let alone when she turned to look, was The Hulk punching out a T-Rex, more so on a beach. One could understand nearly anywhere else, but a beach? It was weird. Perhaps this was a dream. Maybe her alarm clock did die when she unplugged it that morning and she was sleeping once more. Granted if this was a dream it would have been someone like Captain America being shirtless and certainly not coughing up water. He’d also fight the T-Rex but then he would ride it and invite he to join. Hey, don’t judge her dreams, it would be awesome. It made her wonder why that couldn’t happen right now. Not that she wasn’t thankful for Hulk punching said dinosaur out, but he’s not shirtless Captain America.

The rather upset and now injured toothy reptile retreated as Hulk huffed out a grunt. After the grunt Hulk turned and started to shrink back to the shirtless man from before. His body heaved with a deep breath before he collapsed on the ground.

That is how Darcy ended up on an island of god knows what with an unconscious and half naked Bruce Banner.

Just her luck.


	2. Starvation Sucks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rather different than the first, just stay with me we're getting to where things get fun... and painful. But fun. Starvation and isolation ahead.

Darcy was uncertain of the time. Really she had tried but nothing about the island was right, certainly not the sun position. She’d given up after she blinked and the sun seemed to completely change location. She had tried using her phone to figure out the time but considering it was frozen on 8:15am, she didn’t know how to respond anymore to it short of a displeased stare. Thus, she started to ignore the time completely and focus on what she could do.

She had gone about finding shelter, dragging the unconscious body of Bruce Banner to a cave she had located. Luckily this only caused minor injuries which she counted as a win, thank you very much. She even managed to build a small fire in the cave for them to keep warm. Who said survival training was a waste of time when one lives in the city? She’d love to see them deal with all of this. Them in this case referred to a group of girls she had the unfortunate displeasure of knowing.

Granted all of that survival training and she still could not find food. She knew how to but there were no fruit, no berries, no nuts, not even any small animals or fish in the water. What she did find was fresh a small lake of fresh water. Going out due to dehydration would suck, a lot.

Great, stuck on an island with no food and an unconscious Bruce Banner. Not to mention god knows what other large creatures lived on this island. Still, there had to be food otherwise they wouldn’t be living. Why was she trying to make sense of a place where the sun teleported and the clock on her phone stopped? She didn’t know anymore.

By nightfall, or more accurately, when the sun teleported out of the sky, Darcy had started to talk to the unconscious man while curling in on herself. “It would be really, really nice if you woke up and got us out of here you know. Sooner rather than later would be nice. I kind of miss my bed, and food… And cell service.” Darcy had turned the phone off so as not to kill the battery in case they were teleported to somewhere with service later. She also had her taser, which she did not test on the T-Rex because getting that close seemed like a bad idea.Then she had an external battery for the phone which was charged.

Darcy could survive a lot, after all she had encountered Thor with Jane, had tased him and went through all of that mess. Sure, she might not have gone off on a magical space adventure, but she still dealt with some pretty weird stuff. Fact was though being with an unconscious stranger on an island that made no sense, it was like being completely alone in the world. Both the isolation and the uncertainty were getting to her. “We’ll be okay, right?” He voice was small now.

“I’ve handled isolation before. I can deal with a tough situation. I mean, I made it this far in life. But, I’ve always had something to turn to.” Darcy was not sure in the least if this was just a bid to keep her sanity or what, but she continued to talk anyways. “Normally now I have Jane or someone, you know, someone who rambles and just gets so… enthusiastic about what they do. Someone I just know and understand. I’m not really alone when they ramble on and on. Out here though, there’s nothing. Well other than you and a lizard that would love to have a snack.” She heard a howl far in the distance, it was unnatural, and chilled her just hearing it. Of course the world had crappy timing. “And a wolf or something, which could make this worse since I’ve seen no sign of food for it. And that tends to mean that we’re lunch for something else. Or, well, I am, since I don’t think a wolf could kill you even unconscious. It’d just kind of start and then, I don’t know. I just kind of wish you’d wake up… Please.”

Nothing changed by day two, other than Darcy tried looking for food again with no luck. Her muscles were sore from running the day before, she tried to sleep it off on the hard ground with no luck.

By day three, Darcy started to feel the start of starvation mode. She had found a way to get Bruce to drink so he wouldn’t die from dehydration on her. He hadn’t woken up and she took to talking to him about nonsense and the occasional Wilson joke.

By day four, Darcy felt her body breaking down, she knew she could survive a long time with no food as long as she had fresh water. She looked towards Bruce eventually, feeling her head swim, her body unable to function.

“You know it’s getting harder to look after you,” She commented softly, “It’s hard enough to get you to drink but I can't find food near here and if I go farther out, I may never make it back. Or I may get eaten by out toothy friend.” She looked at the man who was propped up against the wall of the cave. “I can’t tell if this is normal for you or if something is seriously wrong.” Each morning and each night she turned on her phone to check if there was even one bar.

“You better wake up soon, Doc.”

By day five, Darcy felt nothing but fatigue, not wanting to move, not wanting to do anything. Her body just wanted to conserve energy. She had started to sing any song that came to mind in order to deal with the growing pain, and the isolation. By mid day she had convinced herself to get up and go get water as she did each day to try and keep some routine. Really, she wasn’t even sure if they were days passing by, it was just how the usn teleported. She had looked for a pattern but couldn’t find any, it was just random. There was still no sign of rescue.

It was on this day, on the usual walk to the lake, that she ran into a certain reptile again. And just like that she was running once more, she knew her body couldn’t keep it up for long. So, she went for the cave and hoped that somehow Bruce would wake up. As she got close she shouted, “Doc, a little help!” Her heart sank at the thought that maybe nothing would happen, maybe this would be how she died. Maybe it was better than starving to death.

These moments, however rare, are when life finally hands over a win. She made it to the cave and as the T-Rex drew closer and tried to follow, it was met by a large green fist. The fight was short, ending with Hulk grabbing the creature’s tail and tossing it away.

Darcy watched as Hulk shook, and deciding this may be her only chance she ran over and started to shout. “Wait! don’t go back to sleep, I need help! I need-” Of course life cannot hand over that many wins in one single day. Just like that Hulk was back on the ground and was once more the unconscious man. Darcy struggled not to kick him.

On day six, Darcy had not slept through the night. She stared at Bruce who rested, propped up against the wall. Her mind kept going over what Hulk had done, how he had responded. Eventually she had to pull herself over to him.

“I don’t know how you got up to save me. I don’t know if you can hear me or have some freaky Hulk sense. But I need you to know, if we don’t get food soon, things are going to get worse. It may take a while but we will die and it will be slow. Our bodies will destroy themselves until there is nothing but skin and skeleton. You know that somewhere in that big brain of yours. So, wake up and help, because I don’t want to die here. I don’t want the last thing I ever text to be ‘Fuck Mondays’. I don’t want the last bit of knowledge I add to this world to be that some random guy is a tool and that I like a cat video. So, wake up and help me.”

She watched for any sign of him listening and saw nothing.

“Please… I don’t want to die alone.”

Darcy propped herself against a wall and eventually dozed off again due to just not having the energy to stay awake.

On day seven, Darcy woke to a small pile of fruit and large foot prints. Bruce was now laying on the ground near the entrance of the cave, still looking unconscious. So there was food on the island, somewhere. More importantly, some part of him did listen. She picked up one of the odd looking fruits on the pile, almost all of them she couldn’t recognized. She fiddled with the skin, uncertain what parts were safe to eat. If Hulk brought them back they had to be safe right? She got past the skin and started to devour the inside, ignoring the taste in favor of just having something to eat. After several large bites she got out a quick, “Thank you.”

Halfway through, knowing her stomach was smaller he looked at the fruit, telling herself to slow down. “Figures Jane goes missing, Thor goes after her with that ability to always find trouble. Me? I go missing and I get a comatose man with one hell of an anger problem.” She took another bite, now recognizing the fruit as having a rather sour taste but not bad. Granted just about anything was better starving. Well, maybe not lutefisk. One time at an office summer job, there was a guy who got annoyed with people taking his food from the fridge so he brought in lutefisk to stop them. It didn’t stop them the day he brought it in, despite the smell, it did stop them for the next month though after eating it. This fruit was certainly better than the lutefisk, even if Darcy didn’t eat it she stopped when she smelt it and excused herself to the third floor washroom that no one went to for the rest of the day. Still got paid for it too.

“Still stuck in god knows where, but at least we have food.” Darcy talked to herself, as she normally did.

“And at least you’re not alone.”


	3. Pop Culture Sucks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce wakes up, finally. Then the conversation gets weird.

Darcy nearly dropped the fruit at the voice. There was a point where Darcy of course had to wonder if she had just snapped. It would make sense after everything she went through. Not just on the island but in general. If she had snapped then damn it brain why couldn't she have Captain America? Give her one thing, just one, shirtless Captain America. Still, seven days seemed like a short time to become delusional in such a way. Perhaps hearing voices at this point would make sense, if not for the fact that the day before Hulk had punched and thrown away a giant reptile like it was a child’s toy. Due to this reason slowly looked towards Bruce who was starting to curl up on his side in an attempt to sleep again. Darcy was rather quick to get up to stop him. “Oh no you don’t You don’t get to wake up only to go back to sleep again. It’s been a week!”

“Want sleep,” Apparently Bruce Banner when desiring something was very capable of complaining like a child.

“Seven. Days. Doc.” Darcy yelled each word into Bruce’s ear. Watching his face scrunch up with displeasure as he tried to cover his head with one arm, which Darcy tugged away. “Seven days and no human contact, just a T-Rex. I’m pretty sure you slept enough. You don’t get to be comatose anymore.”

“You have your body shift to breathing under water and then back again. See if you feel like being awake after that.” Bruce mumbled it out as he tried to pull his arm free weakly.

Darcy paused for a moment, just enough that Bruce got his arm back before she commented, “What, like you took some fucking gillyweed?”

Bruce opened one eye to glare at her, clearly not amused, “Did you just make a Harry Potter reference?”

“Yes, yes I did and I’d like to point out it did not leave Harry in a coma afterwards that lasted for a damn week.” Darcy grumbled as she tried to grab his arm again but that seemed to fail this time. She knelt down beside him, she was not leaving him alone to sleep again.

“Those books in general are not based on logic.” Bruce tried turning away from her.

“They’re fantasy,” There was no part of Darcy that could believe this was the first conversation they would have after a week of silence.

“Fantasy can be smart if done right. Just like all genres, it can be more than what we expect from it. We just have to ask for it. Harry Potter has its moments certainly and is an enjoyable read but there are also many flaws with the logic.” Darcy was in some ways missing the silence.

“You seriously want to complain about how a series of books and movies that are widely loved aren’t logical?” Darcy raised an eyebrow, how was this her life now?

Bruce sat up at that, “You seriously want me to believe people fear a guy without a nose that was beaten by a baby? You seriously want me to believe no one up to this point had love? Or what about in that first movie where Harry’s getting choked but his hands burn the guy because of love? Did his throat not have enough love but his hands do? Is Harry Potter just bad at the carebear stare? Which brings the question on if the Care Bears could be Voldemort or not.” So this was what it was like to talk to an insane scientist.

“I kind of want to see that now,” Okay it would be sort of amazing to watch Care Bears fight Voldemort. “But quit ruining what I love!”

“Plus there’s that entire thing where they see themselves as better than muggles. Would have been interesting to see Voldemort lose to a muggle weapon or plan. They held the advantage years ago, but in a world where guns exist and people respond to mass death with a lot of weapons, they’d really hold no chance. I mean, they wouldn’t know what we had since apparently rubber ducks confuse them. I mean if you think about it while the, what was it, pureblood? I think that’s the word, well they act all powerful and great but really those who aren’t of pureblood would be far more powerful. Someone with magical abilities that understands muggles and science? That could do a lot of damage. They might have the death curse, we have snipers and drones. We would take a lot of casualties but we’d rip the wizarding world apart if any of it declared war on us. The books constantly imply that muggles are seen as less, as weaker. The fact is, we would be just as feared as they are.”

“I kind of hate right now,” Darcy grumbled.

“Good, then I can go back to sleep.” Bruce started to lay down again.

“No! You are clearly able to be awake so you will remain that way until the sun disappears again.” Bruce gave her a very weird look, the kind that questions if the person is insane or stupid. “Don’t give me that look. The sun teleports, or we teleport more likely, something like that. Fact is it doesn’t rise or set, it just goes to different parts of the sky at random times with no pattern.”

“Teleporting?” Bruce questioned.

“Yes but, the weather doesn’t change ever. I haven’t seen a single cloud in the sky since I got here, it’s always sunny really.”

“And the sun just seems to move randomly?” Darcy could see Bruce’s mind working away, the gears starting to turn. She nodded and Bruce laid back down on his back, “God damn it not this again.”

“Wait again?” Maybe there was a real hope to escape if Bruce had been here before.

“There are three possibilities,” Bruce held his arm straight up in the air with three fingers up to help make his point. They soon dropped to one so he could count up the three reasons, “First, we could be added to a collection which could mean pet, zoo or science. Why? Because god damn aliens. Second, holding area for an arena. Which then we could be called up to fight at any moment. Again, because god damn aliens. That one is my favourite, half the time when you’re not getting the shit beaten out of you they have you doing hard labour because why not add straight up enslavement. Third is that this is something I haven’t done before. But, the chances are we’re here for the amusement of something.”

“It bothers me that you’ve been through the first two before.” Darcy had to wonder how many times it had happened to Bruce.

“Part of my life. I get taken once a month. Enslaved, beaten, kept, so on. I got used to it.” Bruce shrugged like it was no big deal. How on earth could he shrug like that was no big deal? How did he live a life where that was normal and happened on a monthly basis?

“You know that isn’t something you should get used to.” Darcy curled up a bit at the thought of them being in such a situation. “Why am I here then? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Honestly you were probably in the wrong place at the wrong time. That may work to your advantage if it’s an arena. They’d pull you in with me in a tag team match because they wouldn’t know what else to do with you.”

“Then I get to dodge death while big green smashes. Sounds like fun. What if we’re up against each other?” Darcy really didn’t like the odds of survival even working with Hulk, going against him, that would end her.

“Then you do whatever it takes to stay alive. Do you have anything to help yourself?” Bruce sat up again.

“Just a taser, my phone which doesn’t have an connection, and an external battery for the phone,” Darcy pulled them out of her pockets to show him.

“The taser will work. Hulk takes longer to adapt to electrical shocks. If you surprise him with it, you might distract him.”

“Great vote of confidence there, Doc.” Darcy grumbled out. she thought about the words for a moment before asking, “You said adapt, is that what happened in the water?”

“Pretty much, the initial change was painful as hell and took several hours but Hulk adapts to where he is. Typically in water he holds his breath but he needs air eventually and if he can’t get it, his body adapts to survive.” Bruce once again just seemed to act like it was no big deal.

“So you could survive anywhere?” Well that was a helpful skill.

“Hulk pretty much could with enough time. In theory he can eventually regenerate from anything and each time he heals his body adapts to become stronger.”

“That’s pretty damn awesome.”

“Not really. Hulk ages differently than everyone else. I would survive the end of the world and thus end up wishing for death. I won’t die of starvation or dehydration, Hulk could digest anything and leave no waste but really his body finds ways to survive. I’d look dead and it would change nothing. Hulk eating just stops him from being hangry and he does what he wants.”

“You know, I’ve only known you for a little while, and so far I’ve learned that if I like a single thing in this world or find something awesome, you’ll destroy it.” She was really starting to hate this guy.

“Sorry, I’m just, well, no excuse, I’m Bruce Banner.”

“And I’m just Darcy Lewis, the person who is starting to really dislike you. Maybe now that you’re awake I should pointlessly swim for it.” Darcy didn’t really mean it, but she considered it.

“Not only will it not work but there’s a kraken in the water,” Bruce didn’t miss the wide-eyed what the hell look she gave him at that. “I remember bits and pieces of what Hulk does. He wrestled a kraken before I reached the shore.”

“Well at least if nothing else I can die by kraken and have my last words be release the kraken.”

“It is a better option than going out the same way as the lawyer from Jurassic Park.” Bruce stated with a smirk.

“Did you just try to make a pop culture reference? Because no. You had your turn with Care Bears while messing up my reference. Now you have to leave the references to the professionals.”

“And you’re a professional?” Bruce raised an eyebrow, the smirk growing on his face.

“Of course I am, and I’m insulted you think otherwise.”

“I’ve yet to see proof of that.”

“Coming from a man who referenced the Care Bears likes five minutes ago, that’s not saying much. How old are you again?”

“One can never be too old to Care Bear stare.”

“Yes, yes you can be,” Darcy nodded.

“Tony does it all the time in his suit. Chest beams are a thing with him after all.” Bruce happily pointed out.

“If your example of adultness is Tony Stark, you’re doing something wrong.” Not that Darcy had really met the man but during a very brief hack into SHIELD she found notes on him.

“Point taken I suppose.” Bruce leaned against the wall, eyes closed.

“Hey!” Darcy yelled quickly, “Just because I hate you a little does not mean you get the sleep.” Bruce smirked a bit though did not open his eyes. This resulted in Darcy whipping one of the unknown fruits at him.

“Did you really just throw a cherymoya at a guy who turns into The Hulk?” Bruce looked at the fruit then over at the pile of assorted fruits.

“Yes, because if having one piece of fruit thrown at you was enough to draw Hulk out then you would have destroyed the world years ago by smashing it every time someone handed you a hot beverage or bumped into you.” Well, now she knew what one of the fruits was.

“You are certainly braver than most, possibly smarter.” As much as that could have been a compliment coming from anyone else, coming from it didn’t sound like one.

“Possibly? You really like being a jerk don’t you?” Never mind this asshole could go back to sleep.

“Yeah, sometimes. You did throw something i could easily throw back which kind of means you just armed me. Hence, possibly.”

“That’s my subtle way of saying you should eat instead of sleep. You haven’t eaten since at least you got here, probably longer given the entire breathing in water thing. You should also be nicer to the person who kept you hydrated as I imagine your body adapting to having no water what so ever is hardly pleasant.” The look on his face told her she was right.

“I should, but I’m tired and-” He was hit by another fruit.

“Eat and be nice, jerk.”

Bruce turned the second fruit over in his hands. “I remember these.” He smiled softly. “Though last time I checked it’s the wrong season for them.”

“The sun friggin teleports and you want to complain about the seasonal choices of fruit?” It probably should have been more concerning to her but honestly she was just happy to have food.

“When the pile of fruit you have is from different seasons and parts of the world, yes. It tells me that there’s nothing we can trust here.” Bruce looked the pile over again.

“If that’s your way of saying these could be poison then I don’t care. This is delicious and welcomed poison then.” Poison sounded like a better way of going out than starving to death and listening to Bruce be a jerk.

“Unlikely that it’s poison. It’s just weird. We should look around more, maybe leave markers to get back here.”

“Great, we can do that after you eat.” Darcy started to glare at the man who had still refused to eat. It came down to a staring contest. Eventually, Bruce took a bite of the second fruit, followed by a second before he stopped.

“That’s not the same taste. The first bite wasn’t what I remembered from this fruit at all.The second… It was. Fruit isn’t known for drastically changing from sour to sweet between bites.”

Darcy was out of ways to respond to that. She hadn’t had a problem with the fruit she was eating before, it had tasted the same all the way through. It was probably the weirdest thing she had heard, not including the kraken. “How is that…?” She tilted her head in confusion.

“I don’t know.” Bruce stared at the pile of fruits for a few moments. “Take a bite out of that one, what does it taste like?”

Darcy grabbed the fruit Bruce had pointed to, biting into it, “Like an apple?”

Bruce didn’t say anything for a moment, “Try again.”

She took another bite expecting the same taste, but instead found herself with a mouthful or orange flavor. “It’s an orange now, but with the apple texture. How the hell is that possible? Are you doing some wacky experiment?”

“Sort of,” Bruce stated, his face growing pale. “I… I think I might know where we are.” He got to his feet and walked out of the cave.

“Woah, cryptic much? Where are we?” Darcy quickly ran to follow him.

He was pausing at trees and rocks, looking at them, heading straight for the small lake where she got the fresh water from each day. He stopped at the edge. “I.. I know this place.”

“Okay, great, where are we?” Darcy really just wanted him to answer. It’d be great if he could do that soon. Granted given the look on his face, Darcy got the feeling she was not going to like the answer.

“This place… It’s based off the most dangerous place I know, my mind, my memories.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise these two will get along... eventually.  
> But now begins the fun part, trying to deal with everything this island has.  
> Nothing is going to go right for these two after this. It will hurt, there will be sarcastic comments, and one day there may even be hugs, one day. 
> 
> Today is not that day.


	4. Bridges Suck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything goes to hell.

“Wait, back up, what? How is that...?” Darcy’s mind could not compute that. This man couldn’t be serious. This was a complete impossibilities. “Fruit changes taste because you think about it and you decide this entire place is based on your mind?”

“Well, it’s impossible to know for sure right now, but, the last time fruit changed that way on me was when I was dead and the place I went to was made up of my memories.” Bruce stated simply.

“Wait you were dead?” This was getting freakier and freakier. Wait, did that mean they were dead? She could not be dead. If she was dead and here, was this some sort of weird purgatory or something?

“Yeah, I got better of course, I’m not even allowed a peaceful death. Just a few days off with my best dreams and memories. But, this place, it’s different. The fruits are from my mind, even this cave I can remember. We’re not dead, but whatever made this place, used things from my mind as a template.”

“Okay, let’s back up again. your mind has a T-Rex in it?”

“If I’m right the T-Rex is the least of our worries, but yes, I’ve met a T-Rex before.” Bruce shrugged like fighting a dinosaur was no big deal. Sometimes it sucked being around a superhero.

“Alright, more importantly, you couldn’t remember a pizza or a burger? You went with fruit? I mean I like food but I’d like something warm after all the time.” She was teasing… Mostly. There comes a point when alone that one just craves melted cheese. Because melted cheese is great.

“I think the extent of my control is remembering how fruit tastes.” Bruce shrugged.

“Really? Have you tried thinking about the T-Rex as just a dog in a costume? Because a cute and friendly T-Rex dog would be a welcomed break after everything.” It was worth a shot.

“Unlikely that is going to happen.”

“Well can you remember this fruit tasting like a warm pizza?” She really wanted warm melted cheese. She was thinking about it now, and she wouldn’t be happy until she had it. Besides if he pulled it off maybe he could make coffee out of something else later.

“That’s not gonna work,” Bruce moved a few steps towards where the cave was but stopped. “Hey, it’s always sunny here right?”

“Yeah?” Darcy turned to see what Horror was unleashed on them now. She could see a large black cloud heading towards them. “That’s new and also very terrifying already.” Maybe they were lucky and it was Thor coming or something.

“We should run.” Bruce stated as he stared at the cloud, “I know that formation. We need to get deeper in land now.”

“You really want us to outrun a cloud? Even I know that’s a bad idea, Doc.” if this was because he was awake she would knock him out.

“If that cloud is from what I think it is, then we’re outrunning a flood.” Bruce grabbed Darcy’s arm, leaving the fruit behind, damnit, as he started to run and thankfully Darcy ran with him.

“This is insane and I hate your mind.”

Bruce just chuckled lightly as they kept running through the trees as the sky rapidly started to grow darker and darker. Fact was, he hated his mind too. The wind had started to pick up as they ran uphill and inland. Eventually they came to a cliff side with an old wooden bridge held up by rope. Far below were raging rapids and rocks. “Not good,” Bruce had a skill for stating the obvious. He looked at the rope bridge which looked about as stable as any rope bridge found in the middle of a forest, not at all.

“This isn’t gonna end well, Doc,” Darcy looked down, not a fan of how far down the water was, and the rocks. It didn’t help with the wind blowing and shaking the bridge.

“Look at me and listen,” Bruce moved in front of her, hands on her shoulders, “You need to follow my instructions exactly. We don’t know what else is out here and it could cause problems. So, you’re going to go across the bridge, you are going to hold onto the ropes, your life depends on you hanging on tightly. Once you’re on the other side I want you to climb a tree and stay out of sight. If something shows up on the other side of the bridge while you’re crossing you can come back, you’ll be safe. If it cuts the ropes you hang on, it’ll hurt when you hit the wall but I will pull you up to safety. Do you understand?”

“What about you?” This seemed like a bad idea.

“I’ll cross when you’re safe. I can survive a fall if something happens, and if something comes out on this side it’ll have to fight me. You’re going to be okay, just keep telling yourself that and don’t look down,” Bruce looked around, it was starting to drizzle, they didn’t have long. Bruce looked about ready to say something else when a mass of grey muscle charged out of the woods at them, knocking Bruce away and into the trees.

Darcy looked up at the creature, feeling pure fear fill her as she took in what she was looking at it. The body was grey but it looked near identical to Hulk. Black hair instead of dark green and grey eyes that looked black instead of the glowing radioactive green ones. The creature roared at her and Darcy felt a rush of powerful fear. So this is how she would die, to a monochrome Hulk. there were worse ways to go she supposed, but it didn’t mean she wanted to die this way. She backed away, until her back hit a tree, nowhere to run. She watched the grey Hulk raise both of its arms up ready to smash as it glared down at her. Darcy closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting for it, but it didn’t come.

Opening one eye Darcy looked up to see two greens arms wrapped under the arms of the grey ones as the Hulk she knew looked over the shoulder of the grey one. “Hulk!” She had never been so happy to see anyone before in her life.

“Run!” Hulk shouted. Darcy did not need to be told twice. It was starting to rain harder, the choices were the bridge or get lost in the forest, and despite her gut feeling, she went with the bridge. It swayed in the rain, left and right, slowing her down as she struggled to get across quickly. She looked over her shoulder occasionally to see Hulk fighting the grey one but it was a pretty even fight from where she was standing from. Hulk was focused on keeping his evil twin from the bridge. Suddenly she felt the rope under her right hand go slack, that wasn’t good. The wooden planks below her swung awkwardly to the side, as she wrapped her arms around the other rope. She looked at the other end in time to see a man cutting the ropes, it was too dark to get a good look. The second rope gave way, she had enough time to shoot one more look at Hulk before she started to fall.

Darcy held onto the rope as tight as she could, causing her to swing towards the cliff side. She was going to be lucky if she survived this, if she hit at her current speed it was likely that she was going to feel a lot of pain and broken bones if she hit the wall. Below rushing water and rocks, ahead just rocks. Her choices sucked.

In that moment, Darcy started to wonder if anyone would look for her. Had Jane called the Avengers in hope for help? Had she contacted Thor? Was he looking for her to help Jane? Was Jane tracking the energy that took her here? Maybe that was all pointless now as it seemed Darcy would be dead before then.

Darcy closed her eyes, her hands burned from the rope, her body twisted as she shoulder checked the wall, her knees hit it and hurt like hell, l but no other part of her hit it. Instead her head met warm flesh. The pain was still sudden from shoulder checking the wall, that arm was forced to let go of the rope with that arm, now hanging on by one. Her injured arm hanging loosely at her side, she was trying to understand why she was still alive. She opened her eyes to look at Hulk, his hand was where her head would have hit the wall.

Hulk was hanging onto the first rope that had been cut, he was heaving in large breaths, he looked bruised and injured though healing already.

Darcy hung on the best she could to the rope that was becoming slippery with water from the rain and her grip was failing. She gave Hulk an apologetic look right before her grip failed, though she didn’t make it far when Hulk grabbed her and pulled her against him. Maybe it did matter if people were looking for her still, maybe she could survive this if Hulk was watching out for her. After all he had beaten his evil twin and saved her. Wait… Had he beaten his evil twin? She didn’t check. She was pulled against his chest when she looked up and there it was. the grey Hulk glaring down at them. Oh hell.

Hulk growled low in his throat at the other as the grey one started to smash the ground below him, causing the cliff to shake. Darcy could see the cracks in the wall, this would not end well. She clung tightly to Hulk as the wall gave way and she found herself plummeting towards the water with Hulk.

Well this sucks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so begins the fun part.


	5. Water Sucks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Hulk catch a break... Eventually. First they need to find a place to catch a break and there's a waterfall.

The cold and panic hit her first before she realized there was water trying to invade her lungs. The sudden cold of the water had forced her to let out a breath and try to take one in, which resulted in water. She burned for oxygen and to purge the water from her lungs. It was another few seconds of trying to get to the surface despite the current before she felt something under her push up. A moment later she was on hands and knees coughing up water on Hulk’s back. The green giant swam with the current, staying at the surface so Darcy could breathe and safely ride what amounted to a Hulk boat.

The wind chilled Darcy to the bone and the pain was still terrible for her arm and bruised knees. Being on her hands and knees caused her left arm to scream in pain, currently Darcy was just happy to have air again. “I am…” She coughed a few times, “So lucky to have you on my side.”

Perhaps she spoke too soon. The rain was pouring now and the current was picking up more and more. Darcy looked up and noticed the river just ended… And that tends to mean it went somewhere in a downward direction. “Oh hell.” How was it that this was happening to her? First the evil Hulk, then the bridge now a bloody waterfall? Clearly they can’t just have one thing, there has to be another like a waterfall. Because that’s how things go.

Darcy drew in a breath, wanting to cry honestly at this rate. It was once they were over the edge that Hulk pulled her off his back, wrapping his body protectively around her. A large hand covered her mouth before they hit the water again, not allowing for the shocked breath to happen again. At least Hulk took the hit of hitting the water for her and stopped her from breathing water again. Hulk brought them to the surface after a moment until Darcy was breathing again. A moment later she was alone as Hulk died under without a word.

“Hulk?” Darcy treaded water in the deep pool they landed in, looking for a way out. The rain was making it impossible to see anything. “Hulk?” She yelled, not that it helped, more than likely it would attract trouble. It was hard to stay up with an injured arm but she fought to keep her head above the water anyways. A few more moments passed before Hulk came up.

Darcy was relieved to see him until he grabbed her and pointed down only giving her enough time to take in one large breath before pulling her down. Darcy was really starting to hate not being told what was going on. She had no idea where she was being taken as Hulk swam in what was pitch black water to her. She slowly let out the breath trying to draw out how long she could go without air as Hulk pulled her along. Her lungs were in burning pain but she had to believe Hulk had a plan. Even if it was a cold and dark plan but it had to be a plan. Finally she saw some light ahead of them.

Breaking the surface of the water Darcy and Hulk were in a cavern. At first Darcy had no idea where the light was coming from, it was a strange light blue glow that filled the first section of the cavern and let her see a pathway that became pitch black rather quickly. She coughed, heaving in large breaths of air as she tried to understand where they were now. Hulk just walked around once he pulled them onto dry land.

Darcy stood, despite the cold that made her body shake. For now she had been able to forget the pain thanks to the cold. She started to look for the light source, soon finding another small pool of water. Inside was a few weird looking fish that were glowing brightly. “That’s cool.” She looked at Hulk as he walked over to look. “These are part of your memories right?” Hulk just nodded.

“I suppose there had to be something not terrifying up in that head of yours.” She offered a slight smile but Hulk looked just sad as he watched the fish swim around the pool. “What’s wrong?”

Hulk didn’t answer, he just walked over to a wall and sat down, his arms resting on his knees. Darcy joined him, staying a foot away to not invade his private space. She was silent, trying to figure out what to say to him. Eventually she thought of earlier when she was eating the fruit. “You brought that fruit right?” She waited for the slight nod from the behemoth. “Thanks for that.”

There was no response at first before Hulk’s voice rumbled, “Hulk listened. Hulk listened to everything while Puny Banner slept.”

“Everything?” She suddenly regretted singing. Hulk nodded again. “Then I’m sorry you had to endure that.”

“Hulk sorry Tiny Human left alone.” Hulk’s voice was soft.

She considered giving him her name and trying to get him to call her by it but she had a feeling that wasn’t going to happen. “Thanks big guy. At least I’m not alone now.”

Hulk nodded as Darcy started to shiver again. Hulk’s massive arm pulled her towards him gently. He was surprisingly warm, and dry. She edged closer until he just stretched his legs out in front of him and pulled her against her chest. “Tiny Human, safe. Tiny Human, stay warm.”

“Thanks big guy.” Despite being against the chest of something that could smash her with really one of his toes, Darcy felt relaxed. Even as the pain edged back in, being against Hulk just helped.

“Tiny Human no so bad at singing.” Hulk commented causing Darcy to smile.

“Is that a request for me to butcher a song for you?” She felt Hulk chuckle at that and she started to think about it. “I don’t even know what I’d sing. Most of the songs I know are sort of, not appropriate.” There was another chuckle, his body shaking slightly. “I suppose I could hum something.”

There was no answer, but not in a bad way. Time passed and they were silent, but not uncomfortable silence. It was like sitting beside close friends really. Eventually Darcy started to hum without even really thinking about it. It was just an accident really, more so when she was humming Misty Mountain. She hadn’t read the books recently or watched any of the movies in the past few months but it’s what she hummed softly. Maybe it was just because on some level it felt calming and slow to hum, not part of a set list at some club. Plus you know, singing, or humming, to Hulk about butts is a strange and likely bad idea. 

That is how they fell asleep. Darcy in pain but humming against a very warm Hulk.

There were worst ways to fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all of those who have been leaving comments! I started this while at what I call Job Purgatory to fight off boredom. This was originally just hand written as Job Purgatory did not let me use the computer often. I decided to see what happens if I post it after I had typed up what I had and was sort of shocked at the response.
> 
> Job Purgatory has since ended though I'm not done writing this and I will see it through to the end. We've got a long way to go, more so if Darcy and Bruce are ever going to get along.


	6. Technology Sucks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy wakes up to pain, destroyed electronics and Bruce.

Darcy woke up to her arm screaming in pain. Her mouth was open in a silent yell.

“Deep breath,” The voice came from behind her, “Your arm is swollen, likely broken or at least there are fractures. You’re going to be okay though.”

Well she wasn’t laying on Hulk anymore. At least Bruce had been nice enough to let her rest on him once he had changed back.

“Just relax for a moment, deep breaths,” Bruce continued to instruct. “Now, I’m going to help you get off of me, then we’re going to wrap your arm with a temporary splint. Ready?” Darcy gave a nod, trying not to bite her bottom lip as Bruce started to push lightly against her to get her off of him. She kept reminding herself not to move her arm at all as Bruce slip gently out from behind her.

Eventually Bruce was beside her, even if it felt like it took forever thanks to the pain. “What did I do to get stuck in all of this?” Darcy was upset about the pain, at being out here like this. “Why couldn’t I have a normal life with a normal job?”

“Because normality is boring and you’d go insane doing it,” Bruce responded simply.

“I could use boring,” Darcy stated near defiantly, “besides you don’t know that for sure.”

“You haven’t freaked out about Hulk or really much else. Normality doesn’t suit you.” Bruce shrugged as he started to look at her arm. “I doubt that you want boring at all. Now, I need to rip off the sleeve of your jacket.” He saw Darcy edge away from him, being against Hulk had dried her jacket over night, and she liked her jacket. “We need to make a temporary splint until we can construct a better one and I don’t have a shirt, or any other materials. I’m lucky I still have what’s left of my pants and I doubt you want those wrapped around your arm.”

Despite mild silent protests in the form of glaring and hateful thoughts, she gave in. At least it was only mild silent protests. She shrugged her good arm out of the jacket, pausing when she moved the wrong way causing a new shot of pain through her injured arm.

Bruce edge closer to take the arm of the jacket, going inside to tug at the threads to loosen it, then starting to rip it. Bruce as himself was not strong. He had to rip a little, fiddle with the threads again and rip some more. It made Darcy want to take and rip it apart, which she couldn’t with her arm hurt and if it wasn’t hurt she wouldn’t need a temporary splint in the first place.

“It won’t be perfect without something to hold your arm in place but it will help. If needed we’;; repurpose the rest of the jacket into a sling.” He finally got the sleeve free of the rest of the jacket. Bruce started to use it to gently wrap Darcy’s injured arm where he thought the break was. She winced at first but the pain was manageable. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I make no promises, Doc.” Darcy gritted her teeth. They were silent for a while before Darcy noticed the water getting closer. “Is that normal.”

“Not in the least,” Bruce looked from the water to the dark cavern. “Guess we should get moving. Too bad we can’t make a torch or something.”

“Well, my phone had a light but it’s a tad waterlogged.” Bruce said nothing, just held out his hand waiting for the phone. She begrudgingly gave it up and watched as he pried the case off and opened it up, pausing.

“This… This is a phone directly from Tony.” Bruce went through his mind. Bruce realized rather suddenly he had no real idea who Darcy was. He’d never met her, he didn’t know who she was connected to, but he knew this phone. He had his own at home. He liked to leave his phone at home when he wanted time alone which was originally what he wanted before ending up here.

“Yeah, I’m friends with Jane, keep getting tangled up with Thor so Nick Fury brought me one of those,” Darcy shrugs, “Why do you think I haven’t freaked out much?”

Bruce smirked as he fiddled with the inner workings of the device. “Well, there’s a tracking device in this but it won’t turn on.” He looked up to see Darcy’s near offended stare at being tracked. “All phones track in some way or another. This one though is equipped in case someone with a connection to the team was kidnapped. If something was out of the ordinary, Tony’s system would ping your connection first to tell them there was something wrong and then their back up. It would ping the others if neither are reached or Fury after that to get help.”

“So, you all watch out for each other and by extension us?” She meant us as in Jane, and Selvig, those who got caught up with all this mess by accident really.

“As Steve would say, of course you’re part of the team. At least in your own way. The downside is that Thor’s backup is me. My backup is Clint, Clint has Natasha, Natasha has Steve, Steve has Tony and Tony has Thor.” Bruce explained it amll without looking up from his work.

“Great so Thor’s backup is already here,” Darcy grumbled.

“Yep, but the chip is off, that shouldn’t be possible, even from water damage.” Bruce looked at it, trying to figure it out.

“So, we’re alone and no one is coming.” This was sounding bad. They just disappeared from everything.

“No, this was taken off the grid, Tony will be having a heart attack, no one takes his stuff off his grid. Everyone will be looking,” Bruce stated, “and that is something when you consider who is looking.” Even if they would be in a panic because the chip would be off. The chip couldn’t easily be destroyed, they tested it in many, many ways. Still, Bruce had another reason to keep Darcy alive, other than wanting to be a somewhat good person. She was part of the team.

Bruce went about rerouting the power of the phone, “Once it dries the phone will be fine, Stark Tech. For now that battery is bypassing everything to the flash light. It’ll work for now, and when we need to change it back to a phone you just carefully take this wire,” he pointed to it, “and connect it here.”

Darcy watched and nodded, “Great, wish I could say the same for my taser.” Bruce’s hand was back out.

“Might as well hand over the other battery too.” He traded her for the now phone shaped flashlight. He started to pry them apart. He spent a few minutes hooking the battery to the taser.

“You know, I used to see you on the news,” Darcy wrapped her good arms around her knees. She saw how Bruce stopped working briefly, she had his attention. “How people claimed you did something, how you were some monster. I hated to watch the people complain but I loved to watch the videos of you, well, Hulk. Eventually I went online and just found other videos. The ones shot from behind Hulk, from those he protected. I used to wonder why no one talked about them. I even saw one where Hulk saved a box of kittens.”

“I don’t see your point.” Bruce stated softly.

“Just… Even if you can kind of be a jerk, I’m glad you’re Thor’s back up."

Bruce handed her the taser back. He couldn’t bring himself to say that she might regret that with what they’ll face.


	7. Explosions Suck

“Stay close.”

Like anyone would be insane enough not to stay near the only guy on their side that can punch a T-Rex in this place. Darcy was going to stay stuck to Bruce like glue. Plus, she had the flashlight, not that it did much good. No matter what way she held it, it seemed they could only see a few steps ahead of them then it was just black. It wasn't even the light being weaker on the edges, it was just black. She pointed the light at the ground and they saw no further than a few steps, she pointed it at the walls and it was the same. Straight on was identical to everywhere else. It was as if the light was consumed only a few feet away from them. Still they had some and in her experience if something was going to attack them, best let the guy who can punch see it.

Just to add to the strange factor, everything was silent except their soft breathing. Their footsteps made no sound, even when she tried to stop her feet on the ground there was nothing. This gave Darcy chills and she longed for anything to break the silence, preferably something that would not make her angry. She tested her voice with a quick, “Hey,” she heard it and saw Bruce briefly look at her. Okay, they could hear each other and talk, sound wasn't being sucked into a weird void. But now she had Bruce’s attention, might as well use it. “Can I ask you about the Hulk?”

“Nothing is stopping you I suppose.” Bruce shrugged as he kept walking, he seemed much more calm than she was about everything. Maybe that was just part of how he dealt with things.

“He’s brought out by, anger, right?”

“That’s the simple answer people get that everyone can understand.”

“What’s the complicated answer?” Darcy saw the look Bruce gave her, “Seriously, what’s the complicated one? I can handle it, Doc.”

“I don’t even know everything about it. But, essentially it works with fight or flight. Anything that can cause an adrenaline rush really, that’s what I believe the trigger to be. Though there is more to it than that. If my life was in danger the self preservation Hulk has would kick in with or without adrenaline. Adrenaline is the start of a chemical reaction.”

“So, is that why Hulk gets angry? Fight or flight is a fear response. He’s just lashing out?”

“Hulk is made of rage but yes, that is one way to look at it.”

Darcy let them walk in silence for a bit before asking her next question. “What’s it like inside Hulk?”

“It’s being lost in pure rage, a fog almost, you float in it. Sometimes you see things and hear voices. For the most part you float and sort of stop existing. But the experience can be different. If I was to let Hulk out then I’d be holding back a tidal wave of anger to let him think. To let him choose to protect or smash. If I was shot though or tried to stop him then often my conscious self will be knocked out, I will not be there to hold back the rage and he will not think, only smash.*

“Why would you hold him back then?”

“Because sometimes I'm in a place Hulk would not help. I can’t just let him out and change back, he’s his own personality after all. For him to change back would be like him choosing to not exist. Sometimes he knows I'm needed to help, but no one wants to just stop existing, not like that. It hurts to hold him back though, I feel my body change and rip apart from the inside out. Yet, I take the pain to stop a disaster and so I can exist.”

Darcy went silent again. “Sounds terrible.”

“At times it is, I would not wish my life onto anyone. But there is good from it. I can hate myself and hate what I’ve become all day long, but in the end Hulk can change history for good or bad. At least when bad things happen we have an ace in the deck.”

“An ace that could take over the world if he tried, probably.”

“He could, but, if that happened it would be a different Hulk than the one you and the world knows. Hulk isn’t the only one up there, he is only the one that is dominating the others for now.” Bruce looked over at Darcy. “I get to be as dangerous as they say, but not for the reasons they say.”

“You know about others then?” It seemed weird to think inside one man was a group of hulks fighting to get out.

“I know of them. I know they’re dangerous, but, Hulk and I, we try to hold them back.” Bruce shrugged. He stopped walking for a moment, looking up ahead, the tunnel was coming to an end, there was a bright light.

“A way out?”

“Maybe. Save the battery, let’s go take a look.” Bruce moved forward as Darcy put her phone away. The tunnel exited out into the open, but it was weird. They were in the middle of the desert. Well, that was weird. How do they go from tropical island that was flooding, to an underwater cave, to a tunnel where light seemed to be swallowed and now this. Things just had to keep getting weirder. Darcy looked around, she could see buildings in the distance, one single tall spire alone far away from several smaller buildings, a chainlink fence around the outside. It reminded her of a military base seen in a movie. Maybe this was a military base, maybe everything was just a big military experiment which then why her? Bruce had issues with the military but this was still, just, strange. She could see two small dust clouds being kicked up. One of them just barely let her make out a red sports car, the other was a smaller vehicle, similar to that of a golf cart.

Bruce’s face was pale as he looked around at the scene in front of them. He suddenly grabbed a hold of Darcy’s arm and shouted one single word, “RUN!”

Darcy was pulled along before she could ask what the hell was going on. That didn't stop her from trying when she realized she was just being pulled as hard as possible to follow Bruce. “What exactly are we running from.”

“That thing over there is a bomb, we need to get to cover now!” Did he say a bomb? Wait, those two people who driving...

“Wait, what about those other two?” Darcy questioned, they couldn't leave them to die.

“They’ll be fine,” Bruce ran for a trench, they were almost there, just a little more.

“How can you know that?”

“Because one of them is me, this is the day Hulk was born,” Bruce pushed Darcy into the trench just as the bomb went off, before he could dive into the trench himself. Everything went white in one big flash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is where we get into the comic history more than anything else for Bruce.
> 
> And yes, it has been a while but I am not dead. This section I didn't want to write until I knew how I would deal with the problem they were going to be presented with. Now, I think I do know the best way to handle it. The sections that come after the birth of Hulk, I have planned and come up with the best solutions for. This one just, grgl, I wanted it but it didn't want to come.


	8. Two Hulks Sucks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy deals with what happens when Bruce is hit by a gamma bomb again, and on top of that, gets to meet someone from Bruce's past.

Sometimes there’s that moment when it feels like time slowed down. Darcy had felt it when she dropped her favourite mug a few years back, it had a kitten on it. Sure, Jane bought her a new mug but it was never the same. Still, in that moment everything slowed down as her heart pounded, seeing the kitten mug fall to the floor and crash. She had stood there looking at the shattered remains… before she realized coffee is hot and said hot coffee was all over her socks. Even when the scene replayed in her mind she saw it move slowly. Mainly she remembered her heart pounding. It sort of felt like that now. Only, the kitten mug this time was a grown man who had just taken a bomb pumped full of gamma radiation to the back before he fell into the trench beside her.

You know what they don’t teach you in life that would be helpful right now? How to deal with this. Sure, not many situations would call for looking after the victim of a gamma bomb blast that wasn’t obliterated, but when it is called on it would be helpful to know what to do.

“Doc?”

Bruce was face down, twitching and… glowing? That was, probably not safe. She supposed she should try to get him on his side or back, but, he was friggin glowing. It didn’t take a nuclear physicist to tell you that people should not glow and if they do, you probably shouldn’t touch them unless it’s with a really, really long stick. Darcy did not have a really, really long stick.

Bruce got onto his side rather suddenly but nothing was right. He looked to be in horrible pain and trying to hold it back. Darcy didn’t get a chance to speak or help him when she heard a voice above her and the clicks of many guns. “Hands up.” Darcy’s hands shot into the air as she looked at the military uniforms holding guns. She hesitated to say soldiers, more like shadows and featureless ghosts, they were beyond creepy. The voice shouted again “I said hands up!”

“My hands are up, and clearly he isn’t able to get his up any time soon!” Darcy shouted back hoping to not get shot. What happens when a ghostly shadow shoots you anyways?

“That’s it, fire!” Darcy ducked, hands over her ears (as best she could with one being in a makeshift splint), eyes closed as the guns went off. There was no piercing pain though, despite the sounds. A few moment later the gunshots stopped and a roar unlike any she heard sounded. She opened her eyes, unsurprised to see Hulk attack the ghost squad but it wasn’t right. This had to be Hulk with no Bruce holding him back. Worse yet, he was glowing. “Oh shit…” Darcy got up as Hulk tore through the ghosts only for more to take their place, ghost soldiers, giant dogs, a few mutated creatures, tanks, planes, everything constantly being thrown at Hulk. “He absorbed the radiation.” That could not end well.

Darcy climbed out of the trench. If Hulk turned on her she wanted open space to run for her life. Unfortunately it seemed like that was coming soon. Glowing Hulk was ripping through everything and the replacements were slowing down.

Okay, she bad to think. When she’s mad what does she want to do? Buy a box of cookies and not share. Not helpful, what else? Punch things. Hulk was already doing that. But, if he absorbed all that energy then he needs to work it off and nothing can stand up against him. 

Except another Hulk.

Darcy looked towards where they had seen the two driving. Bruce had said one of them was him, that this was the day Hulk was born. Hopefully, that was true, because there was only one tank, a handful of soldiers and an angry dog left.

Another roar.

Make that three soldiers and an angry dog left.

Darcy started to run, as hard and fast as she could. The gun shots and barking behind her stopped and another riar sounded before she heard loud thumps coming closer. She didn’t dare look behind her as she ran for the other trench where the other Bruce and whoever he was with were.

The thumping was right behind her, she could practically feel his breath. Almost there. She slid on the ground and into the trench where she found a guy, maybe seventeen and an unconscious Bruce. Oddly enough, Bruce did not look that much younger from the Bruce she knew. “Uh, hi?” The boy didn’t answer as Hulk growled above them. Darcy rapidly crawled to Bruce to shake him trying to get him awake. “Doc, not the best time to nap. You need to let Hulk out. Doc? Doc!”

Nothing. Hulk was sliding into the trench, growling like a rabid dog as he got closer.

“Please, Doc…”

Suddenly it was dark, the sun was gone and the moon was in its place. The unconscious Bruce started to twitch and shake, until the remains of, what Darcy assumed were a lab coat, were torn apart. As were the other clothes he wore, including the iconic purple pants. Who naturally just wears purple pants anyways?

Soon there was another Hulk, but this one was grey, like the one in the jungle. “Oh no…” Green Hulk couldn’t save her this time if things got rough. What was he even doing here?

There are others.

Right, Bruce had mentioned other Hulks. Was grey one of them? “We need to go,” Darcy grabbed the boy’s arm, “like now.” At least maybe, if they moved fast, the two Hulks would fight each other, hopefully let big green burn off enough energy.

“What the hell is going on? What happened to that guy?” The guy was shouting.

“Turned into a Hulk, don’t worry about it. Happens all the time with the Doc,” Darcy heard the thump of Hulk behind her and two separate roars. “And we really don’t want to get in the middle of two of them fighting.”

“Turned into a what?”

“I’ll explain when we’re not about to get smashed!” This guy was becoming increasingly frustrating. What is it about people Darcy meet that want to question the danger instead of getting away from it? 

Darcy pulled the guy into another trench, away from the fight, breathing heavily from all the running. Darcy was not made for running. Driving dangerously? Yes. She could do that. But running for all of this? No. Definitely not. She gripped her arm which was throbbing from her heart rate increasing. “Damn, damn, damn.”

“Can you explain now?” The guy asked, he wasn’t even slightly out of breath.

“I can try. I’m Darcy, the guy who turned into the big guy is Doctor Banner. He does that a lot when under stress.”

“Okay… Why did he save me?” The guy asked, “That was a bomb… Why did he do it?”

“Leading theory is he nuts, but, who are you? Why were you out here?” Darcy could hear the fight between the two Hulks.

“Rick Jones, and, well, I took a dare. Some guys bet I wouldn’t drive out onto the site. I didn’t know there was a bomb test today.”

“Well, here’s a suggestion, if there’s a fence that says private property of the military and bomb testing, you shouldn’t go in.” Yep, Darcy just had a skill for finding people who ran towards danger.

“We’d been out several times and never saw a bomb go off, how was I supposed to know there would be a bomb test today?”

“I don’t know, maybe you just shouldn’t have risked it in the first place. Better to be alive and get some jerks making fun of you than being blown up!” Darcy started to push herself up as she went to look over the edge of the trench at the fight. The two Hulks were exchanging punches, but at least the green Hulk was slowly losing his glow, but he was also very obviously winning.

“Well, why did he bother to save my dumb ass?” Rick questioned.

“I don’t know. If you don’t know him, then maybe he did it because he’s a nice guy,” Darcy slid back down to the ground. Bruce’s actions were before he was Hulk, he wouldn’t have known if he would survive or not. They’re on a military base, he could have stopped the bomb and sent some of the personnel out to get Rick. Why did he come out? He must have trusted someone to stop the bomb and they didn’t. He just, had to do this himself. Had Bruce even known if he’d survive another gamma bomb when he pushed Darcy into the trench? This was confusing.

“No one’s ever cared about me before… I can’t believe I caused him to become that. It’s my fault,” Rick looked like he was in a panic attack.

“Woah, hey, look at me, calm down.” How was she the one remaining calm after all of this anyways? “Look, you made a stupid mistake, that happens. A very stupid mistake. But, I can tell you right now, that Hulk, he does a lot more good in the world. We would never survive what comes without him. What happened sucks, but there is good that comes out of it.”

“It’s my fault though, I… I turned him into that, I ruined his life,” Rick shook his head.

Darcy was about to open her mouth to try again but then came the thump that she hated to hear. She looked up and there was the Hulk. The green one. Growling and staring down at them. “And… Now we’re gonna get smashed… Bruce, please wake up.”

Hulk roared again and lifted his fist up, looking between the two but paused. “...Rick?”

Oh sure, she goes on an adventure with Hulk, sleeps on top of him, and who does he stop for? Rick. The guy who nearly got himself killed.

“...Rick.” Hulk said again and lowered his fist.

At least he stopped. 

“What… What’s going on?” Rick questioned.

“I’m guessing, there’s more to this than I know,” Darcy stated. “Guessing you and he have a much longer history coming up.”

“So, what happened to the other one?”

“Probably unconscious and human again. You might want to go get him, he is the one that saved you.”

“Rick?” Hulk questioned again as Rick shrugged and climbed out of the trench.

“Hey, big guy, remember me?” Darcy looked up at Hulk who finally looked at her. “Little help getting out, my arm is kind of, saying no.” Hulk reached down to lift her out. “Thanks, any chance Puny Banner is able to come on out and explain what’s going on?”

Hulk growled softly and thought for a moment before he started to shrink until Bruce was on the ground, looking rather sick. “You okay?” Bruce coughed out the words.

“Well, no new injuries, but a lot of questions, like who the hell is Rick Jones, and why did Hulk stop when he saw him?” Darcy looked towards Rick who was making his way over to the other Bruce that was unconscious.

“Rick? Probably because he’s one of my best friends, or well, right now he’s about to become one of my best friends. I couldn’t get rid of the kid when we met out here. He blamed himself for everything, said he’d help keep me safe. Eventually everything got too dangerous and I finally got away from him for his own safety. But for the first few years, he helped keep Hulk safe.” Bruce sat on the ground, trying to recover, he was slowly starting to look better.

“Okay, mind if I ask why you drove out here when you didn’t know him?”

“Because he was in danger. I told my assistant to stop the bomb, didn’t realize he was there to kill me until after. Still, Rick was just a kid, I wasn’t gonna let him die. Probably could have sent anyone else to get him but, I just didn’t think.” Bruce shrugged.

Darcy was silent for a long moment. “Now what?”

Bruce looked around, “I don’t know. We start walking?”

As if that was the magic phrase what looked like a cave opening appeared in the distance. The entrance was pitch black like the path they had taken to get here. “Well, that’s creepy.”

“Guess whatever is controlling all of this wants us to go that way. Typically I’d say screw it, but I get the feeling whatever punishment would come for not listening would be much worse and neither of us are in a condition to deal with that right now. For now we keep going. At least until this sickness passes.” Bruce struggled to his feet and started walking.

“Do you need some help?” Darcy might not be that strong but she could try to support some of his weight at least.

“No, I’ll be fine. It’s just the leftover gamma radiation from the bomb. It’ll pass eventually. Just gotta keep moving.” Bruce kept going, though he was slow.

“What about Rick and-” She looked to where Rick had been and he was gone, in fact it was like the entire world around them was starting to disappear and just become that cave they started in. Off in the distance from where they came she could see water starting to pour in, guess there was no going back and no waiting. “Never mind. But, I think we should move a tad faster.”

Bruce looked behind him at the water, “As long as we keep moving, it won’t catch up.” 

"So, was Grey Hulk the first?" Darcy asked.

"Yep, and only came out at night at first, things changed along the way. I don't know if the Hulk in there now is the same as the one before, but I just try not to think about it too much." Bruce shrugged. He focused back on the black entrance ahead of them as Darcy got out her phone, well, flashlight as they got closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are actually nearing the end, we're more than half way there. Answers on where they are and who caused this are coming. But first they have a few more tricks to get by and the next one Hulk won't be able to solve without some major help. 
> 
> For now, we know that another copy of Bruce can exist in the same area, and that other Hulks in his mind can come out to play against him. 
> 
> The next part of this I've been planning for a while and I am very excited to work on it and hopefully it won't take too long before it gets up. It's one of the moments I had planned since I wrote the first chapter.


	9. Childhood Sucks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Special warning for this chapter there are mentions of child abuse ahead.

There’s something to be said about the past few days, at least Darcy assumes they were full days and this wasn’t just an extremely long minute. Technically it was possible, not everything ages or moves at the same time. She might have only been gone for a few seconds back home but here, days pass. Last time she had checked the time on her phone before it was changed to a flashlight, it was still 8:15. Thus far she had been chased by a T-Rex multiple times, starved, slowly felt the grip of isolation, attacked by a grey Hulk twice, been on a rope bridge that broke, nearly drowned, spent a night in a cave sleeping on Hulk, and now walked through two tunnels of blackness. Through it all Hulk had constantly been there to save here. Bruce hadn’t hesitated to charge the T-Rex despite not knowing her. The other Bruce had driven onto a bomb field to save a guy he didn’t known. A man who clearly hated himself, but always took the punches even if they weren’t aimed at him. A man who apologised for something that was clearly not his fault. Granted he had also been annoying several times. Darcy started to wonder if anyone would believe her after this.

Darcy started to remember how Bruce collapsed when they first met after everything. How was he still going after changing so much without eating. Eventually the question gnawed away, out of fear that at any moment the man could collapse and enter a tired coma like when they had met. “Hey, uh, how are you feeling?”

“Fine,” Bruce responded. After a moment he looked at her to notice the look of worry. “I’m not gonna faint any time soon. I’m honestly more worried that you’ll collapse.”

“Please, after several years of exam week, I can take on anything. Granted, I do miss coffee right now, at least I had that on my side during exam week.” Darcy shrugged, “I’m also not the one turning into a Hulk at every obstacle we come to.”

“Yeah, unfortunate series of events there but, the bomb, well… It was like a recharge. It overcharged Hulk but after burning that off in the fight, it means I can keep going. The thing is, I doubt we’re going to get a free shot like that again. Eventually, I will get tired. Hulk’s energy is based on his anger, he won’t get tired if he stays angry. I might eventually need rest though. If it gets too much, I may try to let Hulk stay out for longer until we get break. We’ll see how it goes.”

The tunnel let out much faster than the previous, though it was a walk that left her legs burning, the type of pain one would get from hiking up a steep hill… after running through the desert, nearly dying in the water and running from monsters. This time the tunnel let them out on a street. There were single story houses on each side, the styles were from decades before. Bruce had stopped in his tracks, looking down the street, his face pale. This was not going to be good, granted just about everything they had run into thus far would not equal good.

“Bruce?” Darcy questioned but before he could answer she heard the sound of a woman yelling something and looked back at the houses. A woman with a child was coming out of one of the houses, they were carrying luggage with them and in a rush. The woman was slim, but had a slight limp when she walked like something had hit her side and she was still recovering. The woman had long brown wavy hair and kept turning to the young boy, asking him to hurry. The boy was thin making it hard for Darcy to tell how old he was, likely between six and eight. He was underweight with short brown hair and large glasses that sat awkwardly on his face, the sort of kid who if this was a bad TV show, would be getting his lunch money taken every day of his life.

“They’re… they’re going to make it this time.” Bruce’s voice shocked Darcy out of her thoughts. “They’re going to do it.” Bruce started to move towards the two figures who were loading the trunk of the car. “They’ll make it… They have to.”

Oh shit.

Darcy connected the dots, and her heart sank. No, no this… This wasn’t about to be what she thought it was. It couldn’t be.

“Come on Bruce, we have to go.” The woman called out to the boy.

It was.

Darcy felt her stomach knot as she watched Bruce move towards the younger version of himself and his mother. “Bruce…”

That’s when it happened. The woman had gotten the car door open, and a voice came. “Where do you think you’re going?” A dark haired man was suddenly beside her.

“Brian…” The woman backed away. The man followed close and both the young Bruce and her Bruce watched in horror. “Brian, enough! I’m going and I’m taking Bruce, I won’t let you hurt him again.”

“You think you can leave me?” The man grabbed the woman. Darcy was able to make out the shadow of something larger, something just as terrifying around him.

The younger Bruce cried out, “I’ll be good I promise.” Then the woman was on the ground as the man pushed her down hard to the pavement. The woman didn’t move.

“They… They didn’t make it,” Bruce muttered out a few steps away as his younger self watched and moved closer to the body. “She never got up. I… I didn’t do anything to save her.”

The man turned on kid Bruce after realizing what he had done. “You… This is all your fault. You pushed me to this.” The kid was backing away, the shadow over the man was growing into some sort of monster.

Darcy looked at the kid and the man, then at the body and finally to her Bruce, wondering if he was going to do something. “Doc, you gotta do something here, you gotta snap out of it.” No luck, he wasn’t listening. Bruce Banner had checked out and it looked like Darcy was about to witness what happened to him as a child first hand. Brian Banner was closing in on his son, still enraged after killing his wife. This was it, this was- you know what? No.

Darcy had been chased by monsters, threatened by Hulk, nearly killed multiple times. She was not going to watch a man beat up a kid and blame him for something that wasn’t his fault. If Bruce wasn’t going to help, then it was time Darcy did. She had a taser, two charges ready to go, but there was something else, something that could bring down a man right there. The car door was open and the keys were still in it.

Darcy charged the car and slid in, grabbing the keys from the door and getting it started. She put it in reverse, and watched as the younger Bruce passed by behind it and then Brian Banner was in her line of sight. She had ran into a god twice. She might as well take on a monster and save a kid. She gave the car gas, backing it quickly into Brian Banner.

Darcy rolled the window down. “Tiny Bruce, get your-” can’t swear at a kid, “butt in the car.” The kid looked completely lost. “Right now would be good.” She looked towards the older Bruce, “You, get your-” Still a kid present, “butt in the car too. Do not make me come over there Banner. I am done walking. This is going to be the day when tiny you escapes that a-” KID “hellish thing that reminds me much of the hole of a butt.” Nailed it.

Darcy was satisfied when she heard the car doors open and close. Both Banner’s in the back and she turned to look at them. “Alright, now let’s get-” She felt something shift the car and saw a giant yellow claw grip the trunk. A giant claw that was growing quickly.

Of course nothing was that easy. Nothing could ever be that easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You didn't think I'd just let Darcy keep taking a back seat on these fights, did you?


	10. Musicals Suck

There are those days, everyone has them, where a song gets stuck in your head and won’t come out. It’s not even an appropriate song usually. No, that would be helpful and make your life a musical which sounds awesome until you realize that living in a musical is actually hell. One minute you’d be minding your own business and then suddenly you’re in a choreographed dance number you didn’t want to be a part of. Someone wants to have a party song? Well screw your plans of eating a warm meal, by the time the song is done your dinner is going to be cold. Point is, living in a musical would suck, unless you’re the star which then everyone secretly hates you because you would be ruining their day by existing. In every other way it would suck because for most people they would no longer be the main character of their life. Still, it’s a fun thought in your head because in your head you are the hero of your own story.

But then there are times like this where the song stuck in your head doesn’t match. It’s like when you’re trying to fall asleep and suddenly you’re wide awake because suddenly you’re thinking of It’s a Small World, or the Ducktales theme song, or that song from the Juicy Fruit commercials, the ones from the 80s that had that damn song that will never die. Anyways, despite her best attempts to get her current song out of her head, her mind was not having it. She tried replacing it with every song that wishes death onto others she knew that was still catchy, there’s a scary number of those. She even tried random commercial jingles as well as Dance Magic Dance, because it is always the time for Dance Magic Dance. Anything to get the current song out.

Darcy was barreling down the road in the car she stole from the Banner’s residence, with two Bruces in the back and a giant yellow scaled, red eyed demon Hulk Daddy chasing them. The song stuck in her head? Take me Home, Country Roads by John Denver. How does she even know that song to get it in her head? It was stuck hard enough that she was humming it nervously under her breath as she pushed the car as fast as it would go. There were brief flashes of thought between parts of the song like would the road eventually give out because this place wasn’t real? Would she smash into an invisible wall or fall off the edge of the world, or whatever this place was? Then it was back to humming. She didn’t even know half of the words but it didn’t stop her.

She looked in the rearview mirror, yep demon Hulk thing still after them, at least it stopped growing once it was large enough to fight Godzilla. Both Bruce’s shut down. “Doc you wanna snap out of it any time soon?”

No response damn it.

Okay Darcy, time to think of anything but the song. Anything. Start with the what you know.

Everything sucks.

Okay, more specific. This thing is part of Bruce’s mind. Everything is made from his memories. There are multiple Hulks, the one she knew held the rest in check and was the strongest. Bruce was too afraid to lose control and looking at the monster behind them, she doubted Hulk would win without taking a lot of damage that could leave them both in trouble. Bruce’s Dad couldn’t turn into a Hulk, so what was this thing? It had to be how Bruce saw his father, a monster of only hate, one he feared. This is what Bruce was afraid to become.

Okay, now, how do you beat it?

Darcy had no idea. 

“Doc, you mind snapping out of it? I could really use an idea.” Nothing. “Doc?” Nothing. “Bruce?” Nothing from both of them. She supposed she should cut them a break given what they saw, but that break would get them all killed. Darcy turned in her seat, one hand still on the wheel, foot still on the gas as she glared at the older Bruce. “Bruce, snap out of it or so help me I will turn this car around.”

No, no she would not, giant monster behind her.

“We can’t win,” Bruce muttered, “They didn’t make it.”

“Bruce, you knew what would happen and I’m sorry it did. But your mother died back there to protect you. Are you going to let that mean nothing by just rolling over and dying because of that?”

“I did nothing…”

“You were a kid, Bruce! No one expected you to be a hero, your mother certainly didn’t. She protected you, she didn’t expect you to jump in and get involved. She wanted you to be safe. Now, you’re the Hulk and nothing stop the Hulk.”

“I’m not the Hulk…” Bruce muttered.

“Yes, you are. He’s part if you, something you hid away, anyone can tell you that. So, snap out of it or we’re both going to die.” After all, old cars don’t run forever and this one was starting to die. There was still not an answer even as the monster caught up and flipped the car. Good news, the song was out of her head, bad news Darcy was pretty sure this was where she would die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while. Originally the next chapter and this part were supposed to be one chapter, I decided to do this part separate and see if I can fix the issues that made me stop for a while. We are getting close to the ending. After Devil Hulk is one final encounter. It may take a while but I will see this through to the end... Only to start another fic that will take another year, or a half to finish.
> 
> Devil Hulk is indeed what this creature is. If you look it up on Google images, they tend to bring up a bunch of different ones. He's often confused with Guilt Hulk, but Devil is yellow and snake like.


	11. Snake Monsters Suck

Darcy groaned as the car stopped rolling. The car was left on its side for a while as Darcy got used to her surroundings again. The windows were smashed and the car was in terrible shape but everyone was alive. The car started to get lifted off the ground, already knowing it was the red eyed monster, Darcy fiddled with the seat belt, getting it undone. She fell through the open window on the ground, soon Tiny Bruce landed beside her, but where was big Bruce?

“You know, I’m not a big fan of running around around,” The creature spoke as it glared down at them. “But, it is better than being caged. Oh, to be free, finally. There is nothing like it.” It hissed briefly showing the long forked tongue. Darcy never thought she’d miss the over the top hisses snake monsters were usually shown to have, it made them feel more cartoons, imperfect monsters with no control. But, no, this one was careful when it spoke, only really hissing for threats. “All this running around to catch the little monster. Now, I got one.” It started to crush the car in its grip like a toy. “Once I’m done, I will have to thank you for letting me stretch my legs.” It laughed as it looked at Darcy.

“That’s okay I accept thank you cards,” Darcy tried to back away.

A giant yellow tail blocked her path making her jump. “I insist on doing to face to face. Then I will deal with the other monster.” His eyes landed on Tiny Bruce.

“Well, that’s not how you win father of the year.” Not a good idea to taunt a giant monster, but she had to pull attention away from Tiny Bruce, he was a kid. “Assuming some part of you is human.” She pulled Tiny Bruce behind her.

The creature laughed, “Humans are weak, breakable things. Why be human when you can be that monster everyone has? The tiny bit of devil inside of everyone.”

“Ah, so this is what happens when the Devil goes to reproduce, lesson learned, it creates the ugliest thing in existence.” If there wasn’t a kid around Darcy is pretty certain this would not be going so well.

“Ha, funny. I was going to let you live for a bit, now, I think I’ll finish you right after the monster.” Well, crap. The tail curled around her and Tiny Bruce, pulling them closer.

The creature closed its fist over the car, grinning wildly before suddenly frowning and looking confused. Darcy knew that look and as the creature's hand was forced back open she knew that voice. “Not a monster!” Well, Bruce had said if his life was in danger, Hulk would show up. “Not gonna hurt friend!” Hulk, despite being tiny to the beast jumped at the creature’s head. “Not afraid anymore! Nothing hurts Hulk!”

Did the creature get smaller? Darcy was certain he had, the tail was small enough to climb over. But why had it grown smaller? Darcy lifted Tiny Bruce over the tail and followed him over to find safety. she started working out why the creature shrunk. it happened when Hulk said he wasn’t afraid. If this thing was sized based on Bruce’s fear of his father, then standing up to it meant he’d get smaller. Alright, that she could work with. “Hey, Hulk! Who’s the strongest you or him?”

“Hulk is!” Hulk punched at the creature which seemed to do nothing. It was smaller but not by much. Alright not working as well as she thought.

Darcy looked around and her eyes landed on Tiny Bruce who was withdrawn, emotionless. It didn’t matter if Hulk wasn’t afraid if Tiny Bruce still was. With that Darcy was at the child’s side. “Bruce? Look at me. I need you to listen.”

The boy was emotionless, no reaction, withdrawing into himself.

“I know you’re afraid and upset about what happened…”

“Not afraid. Not upset. Emotions are bad, they hurt people. So, I won’t have any.” Tiny Bruce shook his head.

“Okay, that’s ten kinds of unhealthy. Emotions aren’t bad, you can’t just decide to not have them.”

“They hurt people.”

“People hurt people. Emotions are part of us, they can hurt sometimes but you gotta figure out the right response, the one that helps you. Shutting them away, they’ll build up and overwhelm you or worse. Bruce, your mother didn’t die because of emotions, she died because your father is a bad person.”

“If I don’t have emotions I can’t hurt people like he did. He got angry, Mommy died.”

“You’ll hurt more people if you don’t have emotions. Bruce, people need emotions, they help us connect. There will be people who will want to connect with you and if you don’t have emotions, they’ll get hurt and it’ll hurt you. I know, emotions can feel like the worst kind of evil sometimes, but, sometimes they also can be the best kind of good. The one where nothing can be better.” God that sounded cheesy and way better in her head. “Apathy, is not the answer. Apathy will lead you down a dangerous path.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“Because you’re gonna grow up to save me several times. Right now, I need you to look at what’s going on. That monster, is just a man. He will hurt a lot of people like this, unless you can see the man, not the monster. He hurt you, but he’s not that thing, he’s just a very bad man.”

“I don’t know that I can.” Bruce’s voice was quieter, he curled in on himself.

“I think you can. Because one day you’re gonna grow up to be a hero, like Captain America.” When Bruce was a kid did he like Captain America? Darcy had no idea.

“I’m not a hero...” Darcy heard Hulk’s pained roar and saw him fall to the ground. The creature jabbed it's claws through him and laughed while Tiny Bruce shrunk back. This wasn’t good. How did that creature pierce Hulk’s skin? And not only that it went right through. Hulk was struggling, trying to pull the massive clawed hand out, but he was bleeding fast and getting weaker as his body panicked to survive. She had one chance and all of this assumed she was right about Tiny Bruce.

“That’s not what heroes say. You want me to prove you’re a hero? You gotta trust me, just for ten seconds. You can do that, right? Trust me for ten seconds? If I’m wrong, then, well I don’t know. But ten seconds is worth trying right? Take my hand, and trust me. You just have to see the man not the monster, okay? I got you this far after all.” Darcy grinned when she got up and the boy took her hand. “Just focus little guy. The man can’t hurt you anymore, I won’t let him, I won’t let anything happen to you.” So much cheese and she knew it, but this was a kid she was dealing with. For kids, heroes have to win, even if it takes a cheesy lesson to do it.

There was a swift wave of relief as the creature withdrew its claws from Hulk and started to grow smaller with a displeased roar. It started to look more and more man shaped as it frantically looked for the answer. It locked its sight on Darcy and Tiny Bruce figuring what happened as it turned back to Brian Banner. He turned on them ready to yell when Darcy used her free hand to pull out her taser and fire. Probably could have saved that and just kicked the man in the nuts until Hulk got back up but best use of her taser ever.

A grin spread across Darcy’s face as the man fell to the ground. “See Tiny Bruce, ten seconds of trust and he’s not a monster anymore.” She looked down at Tiny Bruce who was uncertain what to say or do at first.

“But… but now what do I do? My parents are…” Tiny Bruce trailed off.

“Hey,” Darcy crouched down, setting the taser down on the ground as she faced him. “You’re a hero now. The answers will come, but you don’t need to be afraid. You’re not alone, you never have to be alone. You’re gonna grow up into one of the best heroes the world will ever know. I promise and haven’t I proven to be trustworthy?” He nodded but still looked about ready to cry. She couldn’t blame him. The fact his mother died in front of him, his entire world fell apart. He deserved a long cry. Darcy wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. “Let it out, big guy. You’ll be okay.”

A few moments passed, Darcy had closed her eyes as Tiny Bruce cried against her. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and found Tiny Bruce was gone. She looked up at older Bruce who had a slight smile, “Thanks, I needed that.”

“No problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much cheese.  
> So very much cheese.


	12. Dead Ends Suck

Things had happened the same way as they had before, water started to pour into the area they were in and a cave of no light appeared. They were walking thanks to someone totalling their car, stupid Devil Hulk. Bruce had set the second charge in the taser up. Still the best use of the first charge. Which reminded Darcy, “How’s your chest? Asshole monster did sort of, y’know.” She made a motion with her hand towards her chest, mimicking what she had seen.

“I’ve had worse.”

“You’ve had worse than a giant claw through your chest? I find that hard to believe. Actually, on second thought never mind.”

“I have had worse,” Bruce shrugged, “but it does mean that boost from the bomb is all but useless now. Starting to feel, well, everything.”

“Don’t you dare go comatose on me, I will use the taser on you,” Darcy warned.

“I have no doubt. I’ll avoid it, I promise,” Bruce kept moving, well, until they came to a dead end. “Well… This is different.”

Darcy looked over her shoulder, checking to see if the water was coming. “Now what?”

“I’d say go back and find another way but I don’t know if that would work or waste time. This doesn’t make sense.”

“None of those are answers, Doc.”

“I could turn you phone battery and taser into an explosive and try to blow a hole in the wall. That assumes that the wall isn’t very thick.”

“Bad option, what else?” Darcy couldn’t see any water, or much of anything.

“We go back and see if a way has opened up and-” There was a loud booming crash as the cave flooded with light, rocks falling everywhere around them.

Darcy’s eyes rapidly tried to adjust to the light, she could make out a shadow above them and despite the bright light flooding into the cave she could see dark clouds. There was a clap of thunder as the shadow moved closer and everything clicked. “Thor?” 

Darcy couldn’t believe her eyes, there was Thor. But, he didn’t look happy, he was still swinging his hammer and glaring at Bruce. He didn’t even acknowledge Darcy. She tried again to get him to look at her and maybe calm down. “Thor. Hey, right here? Hello?”

“Doctor Banner, it’s time we put a stop to your rampage. We can’t allow a monster like you to be free,” Thor’s voice bellowed.

We? Darcy looked around, the walls of the cave were blasted away after a moment and there were others, the rest of the Avengers, and none of them looked happy. “Bruce, what’s going on?”

Bruce was silent for a moment as he watched Thor carefully and then looked around at the others. “Thor, let’s talk this out. I don’t know why you’re upset but-”

“Silence!” Another lightning strike, “Monsters do not get to talk. We’re taking you in, putting you where you can’t harm anyone.”

“What?” Darcy yelled and looked between Thor and Bruce. “Thor, remember me? I’m Jane’s friend… Thor you have to listen whatever you think he did, Bruce is a good guy, he’s not a monster let’s talk.”

“You helped him, you’re just as bad,” It was a voice of one of the Avengers but Darcy couldn’t pinpoint who. “You will both be confined.”

“Wait, back up, what?” Darcy looked around trying to figure out who said what. They were surrounded on all sides now. Nowhere to run.

“Darcy, I’m sorry you got caught up with me.” Bruce held his arms up, trying to block the others from Darcy as much as he could. “Alright, you all want me, fine, let Darcy go and I won’t fight.”

“Too bad we came this far to fight. No deal,” Thor smirked. “Come on beast, time we bring you down. This is what heroes do, they fight monsters. How could a freak like you ever think to be one of us?”

Bruce didn’t answer. Darcy’s heart was racing, “Thor, Jane will never forgive you if you hurt me. Either physically or by hurting Bruce, so stop.”

Thor threw his hammer at Bruce and there went her meat shield from the group. Not good.

They were all advancing now, she could see ropes that had a strange glow. Maybe from Asgard? She wasn’t sure. She rushed to where Bruce had landed, Thor’s hammer on his chest. How was he not Hulk? Maybe he just gave up. No, heroes don’t give up and he saved her countless times. She had to get him back up and fighting. “Bruce, come on, don’t let them call you a monster or a freak. They want a fight, they’re the monsters here. You gotta fight, Doc.”

“Hammer,” Bruce muttered, “No point.”

“What? This thing?” Darcy lifted Thor’s hammer off Bruce’s chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that escalated quickly.
> 
> Thank you all for the kudos this far and the comments thus far.
> 
> Now things get interesting.


	13. Everything Sucks

Darcy knows many things in life. She could hack into SHIELD’s systems after all. She knew how to research, she had to. She knew thousands of useless facts like there is in fact a town called Dildo in Canada even a song about it. She knows that getting to the center of a tootsie pop would be dependant on how acidic an individual’s saliva is and other mouth related factors, but the average is somewhere in 140 range. She also knows oysters change genders a lot. She knows all swans in England are property of the Queen. Banging your head against a wall for an hour burns 150 calories. But, of all these useless facts Darcy knows, the most important is that she cannot lift Thor’s hammer.

Not for lack of trying. Really, she tried out of a desire to get a picture of doing so. That and she would troll people by putting it on top of things they wanted, like books and paper, the lid to the snack box she kept that people stole from. When she found it didn’t move she tried to figure out what one should do when confronted with an immovable object. The answer was of course try to balance things on it, which went south when Thor decided to summon it knocking off the entire one book she got to balance, which ended up knocking over her glass of water, which soaked a few papers… it was a day that involved a blow dryer to rescue some calculations.

Still to lift it off Bruce’s chest meant one of two thibgs. The first could be that she was now worthy, which then screw everyone she is playing with lightning and going to rescue every cat from every tree and fly around petting dogs. this option seemed unlikely, it is unlikely that what she did so far made her able to take Thor’s hammer. So, second logical answer: this was not Thor’s hammer. If this was not Thor’s hammer then, that’s not Thor. The hammer was yanked out of her hand as fake Thor called it back.

“You dare to touch the hammer of Thor?”

“All the time! I know Thor’s hammer pretty damn well. I once had him put it on top of a jenga set to see if you could still move the blocks under it. It was a weird day. But you’re not Thor and that’s not his hammer. Because Thor knows I will not hesitate to taser his god damn muscular ass. So, logically you’re not Thor! And since he,” Darcy pointed at Captain America, “hasn’t said freedom or America I assume he’s not Captain America. And he hasn’t said anything witty or at all he’s not Iron Man. Pretty sure the real Black Widow is way more terrifying than she is. As for your Hawkeye, that is not his hair, I think. I don’t know honestly, I never met anyone other than Thor so I’m guessing. But I know Thor well enough to be certain you are not him!”

The fake Thor stared her down for a moment before speaking again. “Avengers, bring down the mortal.”

“Well crap.” They might not be the actual Avengers but everything up to this point had been real enough to hurt. She's been running on only adrenaline to deal with everything, but her arm still hurt from hitting the wall. Her body was sore, tired, hungry, thirsty. It all sucked. 8:15 in the morning in who knows where, she was gonna end up dead. Science, sucks. Mornings, suck. Everything sucks. Darcy closed her eyes. That’s when she felt something move past her, bumping against her shoulder. She opened her eyes, nothing was there, just fake Avengers moving closer to attack. But something touched her, she was sure of it.

“Any last words mortal?” Right, no time to question ghosts, have to get killed by fake Avengers.

“I got a few,” Bruce got to his feet. “Touch her and you’ll piss me off. And if you don’t like me when I’m angry, you’re gonna hate me when I’m pissed off. So, if you want a fight, come on. Because from where I’m standing you all want to be the scariest one in the room. But, nothing can beat me. Hulk scares a lot of people, but I’m the guy who made Hulk. So, let’s see what you pansy asses can do, because nothing is gonna hold me back.”

Darcy looked at Bruce, he was barely able to stand up right. Fake or not these things would kill him. There was no telling what they'd do to Hulk. Maybe if she took one down Hulk might have a slim chance. But who should she take down. She looked around to each fake Avenger who had turned on Bruce. She needed to choose fast. Then she saw movement, just for a split second, then again and again in different spots. She never got a look at what was moving but something was there. She watched, picking up that whatever it was, was moving back and forth behind the fake team. She just had to time this right.

Fake Iron Man, or Iron Can, yes that was better, firing at Bruce did not help her focus, nor did Captain Fake's shield flying past her… probably should not be coming up with lame new names for these things.

Bruce was throw back into the wall hard, grunting in pain. Why hadn't Hulk come out yet? Was he just that tired? Hulk always would appear when Bruce’s life was in danger so where was he? Bruce’s eyes were green, he was holding him back. Darcy was ready to shoot at him when she saw the movement again. She held her breath and pulled the trigger.

The Avengers stopped and started to fade as something dropped to the ground.

She saw the green outfit and black hair and was ready to blame Loki until she got a better look. The, she supposed thing before her had sickly pale skin, and pointed ears. It started to recover, opening black eyes that immediately switched to a flaming green. It gave Darcy a horrible sense of unease. “What the hell is that?”

“Idiot mortal, I am the master if the subconscious, the midnight leviathan, your worst fears made real, the-”

Darcy kicked it in the stomach. “I am not in the mood for a monologue!”

“Nightmare, okay? I am Nightmare!”

“Uh huh, well Nightmare, I’m gonna kick until you make sense.”

“If you kick me I will make sure you have nothing but nightmares! For that us what I do, I feed on the fear of mortals, it gives me the power to do things like this! I give you all nightmares and I love it.”

“Rude.”

“And I will torment you for what you’ve done. I will-”

Bruce had gotten back up, grabbing the front of Nightmare’s, it wasn’t so much a shirt as a one piece. There was a belt, but it looked like it was there for decoration. Bruce pinned Nightmare to the wall, “See, no you won’t. You’re gonna listen closely. You are gonna let us go home and leave us alone. If I get even a sliver of a thought that you’re trying something, I will hunt you down, and I will smash.”

“Your threats mean nothing.”

“Oh, do they? Because that taser took you down, you feel pain. You think I don’t have friends who can find you for me? I will show you fear, fear you’ve never experienced before. And since you’ve been in my mind, do you think I’m lying? Go on, look me in the eye and tell me that you can take on everything that’s inside of me, because I will happily let it all out on you.”

Nightmare stared Bruce down then raised his hands, “Okay, okay, you win. I’ll send you both home.”

“Can I just ask why I’m here in the first place?” Darcy questioned.

“You were a mistake that just ended up being fun to play with.” Nightmare shrugged.

“Do you think he has balls that I can kick?”

“I heard an old friend of mine talk about this guy, he has kids so he must.” Bruce kept glaring at Nightmare keeping him pinned.

“May I?”

Nightmare shook his head, “Oh look, there’s your ride. You know us demon god types, we have these really nice loyal horses and mind can take you home.” He spoke of a black horned horse with flames for a mane and hooves. “Don't worry it won’t burn you.”

“Good to know.” Bruce let him go and approached the horse, dropping Nightmare to the ground, "Also, you're not a god, you're an asshole. Now, gods can be assholes, but you're just a special asshole that shits on anyone and everyone. You should really look into that, maybe ask a demon doctor or something, because being an out of control asshole is not healthy, it tends to get you beaten up."

Darcy made her way over to the demon and threatened to kick him in the balls just to watch him flinch. She probably would have except she was tired. She started towards the horse, thinking about how tired she was, and sore, and hungry and- wait, it was all that guy’s fault. She turned back around and swiftly kicked him in his demon dick. Because nightmares suck.

“Let’s go,” She caught up to Bruce, getting in front of him on the horse and slumping against him in exhaustion. “Worst. Morning. Ever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments on the last chapter. Sort of cruel to leave you all on that cliffhanger.
> 
> There will be one last chapter that will answer any outstanding questions, like what everyone else was doing, why Bruce was holding Hulk back and such. There's the end we can see it.
> 
> I often type these chapters on my phone or tablet so weird typos and such come from there. I originally was going to have the line about Iron Man firing be specific with his repulsers but my phone kept changing it to trousers every time and I got frustrated because it wasn't let me fix it like it normally would. Now, I could see Tony doing that to soneone, just flinging his trousers, or firing his trousers, but I think that is another story for another day.


	14. Endings Suck

Darcy woke up somewhere, to be honest she wasn’t exactly sure where, just somewhere. She was growing fairly certain it was a hospital the longer she remained awake. It smelled like a hospital, it looked like a hospital, and it had that uncomfortable feeling of a hospital. That being said, given those around her, the fact the room was large but only her bed was in use, she was guessing more of a private medical wing or something. Her eyes focused on Thor and Jane, who was pacing as Thor just stood by the door watching likely after trying and failing to reassure Jane. Darcy decided to try and end the pacing, because somehow even watching movement made her feet duly scream past the painkillers. Her throat was raw and she had to clear it when she spoke, “What happened?”

“You’re awake!” Jane rushed to the bedside.

“I think so?” Darcy doubted that pain and discomfort would exist in a drug induced sleep.

Thor moved to the other side of the bed, “We’ve spent several weeks looking for you. Heimdall couldn't see you. No one could find you.”

“I’m so sorry,” Jane looked about ready to cry, “Something went wrong with the experiment.”

“Noooo really?” Darcy couldn’t help but be sarcastic. Other than dull aches there wasn’t much pain to stop the sarcasm. Expensive painkillers are nice.

“You turned up not far from the current base of the Avengers, just appeared. We brought you to their medical wing. They said you just needed rest, food, water and your arm needed a cast. What happened?” Thor always questioning again.

“Don’t know, turned up on an island. I was chased by a T-Rex, then… where’s Bruce? Is he okay?”

Jane and Thor looked confused. Jane first just questioned, “Bruce?”

Thor seemed to understand a bit better, “You mean Bruce Banner?” Darcy nodded, “No one has seen him in months.”

“He was there though. He helped me get off that island, he fought everything that came. He helped me, and we fought Nightmare.”

Jane looked confused again while Thor understood, “The creature of fear and the subconscious, a demon that haunts a terrible dream world. I have heard that he can gather enough power to do such a thing, but it is rare. Why would he use that power to take you?”

“It was an accident, he was after Bruce.”

Thor nodded in understanding, “Likely to drive him mad and into an unstoppable rampage. When he used his powers to pick Bruce up in the physical world, your experiment must have latched onto the power signature and you hitched a ride.”

“Bruce showed up after me…”

“You hitching a ride likely messed Nightmare up. He dropped you at different points.”

“You honestly didn’t find Bruce?”

“No, I arrived after Stark reported that your phone’s tracker was active.”

The tracker? Darcy was certain it wasn’t possible, Bruce had pulled the phone apart after all. “Where is my phone?”

Thor pointed to the table beside her. “Right there, it was dead when we found you but the chip Stark uses has a different power system.” Darcy looked towards it, seeing the phone back together as it was before Bruce tampered with if and the taser back together.

“At least he put it back,” Darcy knew Jane and Thor were confused, “Never mind, I’ll explain when I’m not so tired.”

Jane nodded, “Of course, I’m sorry, again. I didn’t know.”

“Yeah, well, it was my turn to go on a magical adventure. It sucked but… no it mostly just sucked.” Darcy gave half a yawn, damn it she didn’t want to be tired. She had been sleeping for god knows how long already.

“We’ll leave you to rest and check in on you again. There’s a button that will summon us should you need assistance,” Thor nodded to the big red button. “Rest well.”

Darcy really didn’t want to, but she ended up passing back out.

The next time she woke the room was mostly dark, except for a few lights coming in through the window and a dim light in the corner. She could make the outline of someone sitting in the chair beside her, by the shape it wasn’t Thor or Jane. A terrifying shiver ran up her spine at the thought that it might be Nightmare, she reached for the red button in panic before a voice stopped her.

“I would prefer you didn’t do that. Tony would be very upset if he knew I used a backdoor to get in. As it stands he’ll already know and go to fix it, so I don't have long.” Bruce.

“Doc? Why are you here? Why weren’t you here before? No one knew where you were? Are you okay?”

“Slow down,” She could see Bruce raise a hand, “First off, I'm fine. The rest is more complicated and I don’t have time to explain. I just wanted to check in on you, and also thank you. You saved me back there a lot.”

“I was repaying the times you saved me, plus saving myself.”

“Still, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, but… the rest, are you leaving?”

“Yes,” Darcy could make out Bruce nodding.

“Is it about the Avengers? They’d never turn on you like that! It was Nightmare!” Darcy had hated this man when she met him, he was an asshole, but honestly, she didn’t mind anymore. He was a jerk and an asshole, but also the guy who risked everything to save strangers, he wasn’t a piece of crap person.

“It’s not that, at least, not completely. It’s more complicated, I can’t trust them because of what I am.”

“What the Hulk or the jerk who ruins things I live?”

She heard Bruce snort before replying, “Not just the Hulk. There are others in me. You saw them. What Hulk was like when he was born, the devil that is part of me.”

“No, you are not that thing.”

“Not complete but it is a part of me it is inside of me. How can I trust no one will turn on me if I can’t trust myself? There are so many pieces inside of me that can turn into monsters. I need to sort it out.”

“That sounds like bull.”

“I can't risk it. So, I’m going to say goodbye for now. Get better, Darcy. You’re not a bad partner.”

“You're not a bad hero or a complete jerk face.”

“Also, Harry Potter would have been better if Harry kept calling Voldemort Tom once he knew his name. Just refuse to call him anything but Tom. Because Tom is not scary.”

“I take it back, you are not a bad hero, but you are a complete jerk face. You are lucky there’s nothing I can easily throw at you.”

She could tell in the low light Bruce was smiling. “Goodbye Darcy. Try not to get trapped on anymore islands with dinosaurs.”

“Hopefully no more of those exist.”

“Well…. They kind of due, just, you know, avoid them.”

“Great, Jurassic Park is real.”

“Other than the horrible inaccuracies of the dinosaurs in that movie, sort of.”

“I hate you.”

“I know.”

With that he left and Darcy just watched the door. She heard security rushing by maybe five minutes later, one agent opened the door to check on her, she guessed they knew that the system had been tampered with. She lied and said she saw nothing, though it wouldn’t have mattered, Bruce was likely long gone and to know he was here, she suspected that would hurt a few people to know.

Darcy settled back down to sleep, intending to skip the morning completely. Mornings suck after all, maybe afternoons would be better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not very good at this ending thing. But I figure this probably won't get much better and I needed to finish this story.
> 
> Course I'll probably start another eventually.
> 
> Not sure what characters I'll focus on next time, but I do have a few ideas. Leaning towards something involving Natasha, just not positive what yet.
> 
> Either way, to all of the readers: thanks for sticking through it with me .


End file.
